Microsoft Hohm Online Application
Microsoft Corporation announced on June 24th, 2009 its new online application called Hohm. This application can help you save energy throughout your home by providing you with recommendations on ways you can conserve energy and save money.
While still in beta, the application hopes to one day provide extremely accurate and relevant suggestions. If you are not familiar with tech terminology, an application being in beta den0tes that it is still in development. The application is able to be used, but it is still be refined before being finalized. The recommendation engine behind Hohm will use data and feedback received from its user to ensure that relevant recommendations are provided. The application will grow and provide better results as more and more people begin to use it. Just as with other sites like Google and Amazon, lots of data is required to improve the recommendations. If not enough data is available, it can still use local and national averages to give similar results.
Another great feature about Hohm is that allows you to compare you energy usage with others in your local area. If you energy consumption is much higher than others in your area, it must mean that there are potential ways to reduce your home’s energy use. It could also make people more aware that electric device in their households are using much more energy than it should. This application can also allow you to connect directly with other members on Hohm to get more ideas on how to save energy.
All that is required to be able to use Hohm is a standard web browser. No special equipment is required and the application itself is completely free. So why exactly is Microsoft generously providing us this application? At least for now, they are making their money off of online advertising. It looks to stay that way in the long-run and try to make money off of energy companies. I’m going to give this application a test run and see how it performs. Check out this video of Troy Batterberry, product manager for Hohm, about all the details of Hohm:
How to save money by spending more of it
Don’t worry, I’m not promoting some lame credit card scheme. Nor am I trying to convince you to buy stock.
I readily admit that I am trying to convince you to do something, though. And I’m not very subtle about it, either. Ready? Here it is:
DON’T BUY JUNK.
Buy good quality stuff instead – stuff that will last for a long time and spare you unnecessary hassle and searching for replacements.
But quality is expensive!
Yes. And no.
Most of the time, high quality will cost you more than low quality, at the time of purchase. However, as long as quality – rather than brand - is the reason for the increased price, you’ll end up saving money anyway.
If you buy cheap stuff of questionable quality, it’ll break or wear out. Probably in a relatively short period of time. Which is annoying.
Even more annoying is the fact that you’ll have to spend more money to get a replacement. And, to add insult to injury, you’ll even add to world pollution and energy use in the process.
Good quality stuff will outlast low quality stuff many times over, and cost you less in the long run. As an added bonus, you avoid annoyances and reduce your impact on the environment.
Not convinced?
Ok, here’s an example that illustrates my point:
I’ve had a home office for some time now; about 14 years. Within that period, I’ve had two office chairs.
The first one was a cheap affair from IKEA. It offered acceptable seating comfort, but not much in the way of ergonomic adjustments. No armrests or headrest, either.
About one year down the road, the back was coming loose, holes were appearing in the seat cushion cover and the chair had developed a rotten sense of humor: I would sit writing or playing a computer game, and every time I was concentrating really hard, the chair would go pssscht! and I would find myself sitting about four inches lower, concentration broken and mood foul.
My second chair was - is – a HÅG chair. It has fantastic seating comfort, armrests and a headrest. It can be adjusted to match any seating preferences perfectly.
It has seen more than twelve years of daily use, is still great to sit in and shows no sign of giving up. It did cost me about five times more than the IKEA chair, but has still saved me money by lasting about twelve times as long – so far. And sitting in it has been a pleasant experience for the whole period.
A slight lie
I’ll finish off with a slight admission: I lied – just a little – in the previous paragraph.
The cover for the seat cushion finally succumbed to my butt’s relentless pressure after eleven years.
That only serves to illustrate my point further, though. With quality items, replacement parts are usually available. With cheap stuff, repairs are often either impossible or prohibitively expensive.
I had no trouble getting a replacement seat cushion cover for my HÅG chair, so I was easily able to follow my own advice of repairing stuff to save both kinds of green.
About the author
Thomas Winther is the editor of and main contributor to Renewables At Home. There he provides tips about what individuals, households and neighbourhoods can do to reduce their impact on the environment without breaking the bank. When not blogging, he works as a programmer. He’s also an avid reader of hard science fiction, an enthusiastic, medium-skilled downhill biker and is interested in nearly everything.
